R371 Peace, Joy and Forgiveness

Peace, joy, and forgiveness. Three powerful words, especially forgiveness, that Dr. Don Wilson will be preaching on today. As we open God's Word to the book of Ephesians in just a moment with this special message, peace, joy, and forgiveness, know that we're connecting with you online as well.

Drop by our website, T-E-W online dot O-R-G. We would love to connect with you. Now, Dr. Don Wilson. Would you take a copy of God's Word this morning and turn with me in the New Testament to Paul's letter to the Ephesians in chapter 4. At this time in our worship services, we come to a special time when we study God's Word together. And it's a wonderful thing to be able to read along in God's Word and see what God's Word has to say to us. And so this morning we're in Ephesians, which is in the middle of the New Testament, and chapter 4. And we're going to begin reading at verse 17. I want to speak to you this morning for a brief moment on peace, joy, and forgiveness.

What a wonderful subject. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17. So, I tell you this, and I absolutely insist on it in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, in order to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. A friend by the name of Clem Gaich, whom I know personally, and in fact Ron Wells, who's leading our music today, has also met Mr. Gaich, was born in Scotland, and at a very young age found himself headed off to fight with the allies against the German forces during World War II. Clem Gaich tells the story how he was a hard man. He was an unhappy person.

I don't know if you've ever met anybody who's just unhappy. Inside of him and outside of him everything was wrong. He had a lot of bitterness in his heart. He hated the world and hated himself, and the inevitable happened during World War II, but he was captured by the German forces, and he was put into a concentration camp in Germany. It was a very hard time, and many of our men suffered terribly, many of them paying the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. What they decided to do was to begin to build tunnels by which to escape from the German concentration camps.

Some of you may have seen movies like The Great Escape starring the late Steve McQueen and others that have immortalized some of these heroic deeds of many of our people during this time. The Germans saw what was going on, and they became increasingly concerned about it, but in this concentration camp there was a man who was from Scotland. His name was Jock, and Jock were a big man he were, and Jock was from Scotland and had a real Scottish brogue, and the one thing about Jock that was really remarkable was that Jock loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and even in the middle of all of this hardship there was something different about this man, and so he used to go to Clem and say to him, Clem, I want to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ, and Clem in a very forceful and most ugly manner would tell Jock which side of the world to jump off. I mean he wasn't interested in God. He wasn't interested in Jesus Christ.

He didn't want to be one of those Christian people, you know. He didn't want to have anything to do with it, and so for some time Jock would go to Clem to try and introduce him to Jesus, and it would just get worse, and the cussing and the disdain for this God of Jock the Scotsman just intensified. Well as time went on the Germans said they didn't want to put up with this anymore, these men escaping via tunnels, and so what they did was they decided to parade all of the men in Clem Gaither's POW camp, and they got them to begin to dig a large hole that would fit a very large man into it and just keep digging down and down and down, and eventually they knew that at some time in the digging that all the walls would collapse over whoever was in there would kill that person thereby putting the fear of digging tunnels to escape into the hearts of the POWs, and one day they were out there, and Clem tells the story, they were out there on parade and already the hole had gone down so far you could hardly see the bottom, and Clem just knew that the prison guards were going to select him to be the next one to go into that hole, and all of them knew that whoever got into that hole would never come out of it alive because already parts of the wall were beginning to just crumble in, there was no support, and next minute he felt a gun in his back, schnell, schnell, achtung, the German guard said to him, you grab hold of that rope to Clem, and you get inside that hole. Clem said perhaps for the first time in his life a little bit of fear gripped his heart, but he hated the world, who cared if he died anyway, nobody would miss him, and so he grabbed hold of the rope, and as he grabbed the rope he felt two big hands on his shoulders, and he spun around, and he looked straight into the face of Jock the Scotsman, who was much bigger than he was, and he said to him, what are you doing you stupid Scotsman, leave me alone, and Jock said to him, you stand back man, I'm going into that hole in your place, Clem said don't be silly, he said how can you get in there, whoever gets in there is never going to come out alive, I'm not even married, I hate the world, I hate God, I hate everybody, I don't even have a family, Jock you've got three little girls in Scotland waiting for you to come home, and Jock with ever increasing forcefulness took Clem Gates by the shoulders and moved him out the way, and said to him, Clem, I'm going into that hole in your place, because you're just not ready to die, the gods loved it, this was their opportunity to get this big Scotsman who walked around with a smile on his face all day or so it seemed, and Clem tells the story how that he stood there and all the men out on that parade ground holding their breath as Jock the Scotsman was lowered down into that hole until you couldn't see him, and he picked up that shovel and the first time he put the shovel into the ground, all four walls came tumbling down on top of it, by that time the POWs couldn't have been concerned whether the German gods shot them to death or not, they began to fall onto that hole and they began to dig and dig and dig and dig and they were tears running down their cheeks and they dug and they scratched and eventually Clem said he felt the top of the head and he began to get the dirt away from the eyes and out of his nose and from his mouth and he said Jock the Scotsman was looking up and he had a smile on his face, but he was stone dead, he had already suffocated to death. Just shortly after that, a matter of weeks, the American allies came through and liberated that POW camp and Clem Gates found himself free outside of a war and the restraints thereof and he immediately began to turn to alcohol to drown his sorrows and so every day he would begin to drink and every day he would begin to try and drown his sorrows and every day he tried to run further and further away from the pain and the hurt and the anger and the emptiness and the vacuum that was in his heart and in his life and eventually he went back to Scotland where he was from and something inside of him said to him, I want you to go to Jock the Scotsman's wife, widow and their three little girls, I want you to go and see them and so he got himself together and went up to this little Scottish Croft house in the Highlands of Scotland and he said as he walked up the road, those little girls were outside playing and they saw this man in a uniform coming toward their home. They had not yet heard the word that their father had been killed in Germany. The word had not yet got back in all the furor of the end of the war and as he began to walk up one of the little girls spotted him and said, it's daddy, there's daddy, daddy's coming home, get mommy, it's daddy, daddy's coming home, daddy's coming home, daddy's coming home, there's daddy's coming home, daddy's coming home and as Clem got up to the front door of the cottage, one of them looked at him and said words that he will never forget, he said, but you're not my daddy, you're not my daddy and Clem turned around on the spot with all the hate and the anguish, he wanted to reach down and pick up that little girl but he didn't know how to do that. He wanted to love that widow but he didn't know how to give love.

He wanted to weep but he couldn't possibly weep because it wasn't the manly thing to do and he turned on his heel and he went back to drinking and he began to drink and drink and one day in London, he saw a big sign that said, if you want work, go to sunny South Africa. He said, I don't have work and who cares where I am and so he boarded a ship and he went to South Africa and there he moved into a town not too far from where my wife and I lived at one time, a town called Stutterheim, a German community in South Africa and he began to drink so heavily that his life went downhill so rapidly and one night, a young nurse just 18 or 19 years of age was going on a night shift and just before she got to the Stutterheim General Hospital, she looked out of her motorcar window and lying in the gutter was a heap of humanity and she was overwhelmed with compassion and she stopped and she dragged this human being out of his own vomit and put him into this motorcar and took him to the hospital where she worked where for some weeks, he lay in an alcoholic coma not expected to live and finally, by God's grace, he opened his eyes and looked straight into the face of this young lady and she looked at him and said to him, sir, I don't know who you are, I don't know where you've been, I don't know where you think you're going but I want to ask you a question, were you ready to die? And right there in that hospital room, Clem Gaich gave his life to Jesus Christ and it's a marvelous story really because he fell in love with that young lady, married her.

Do you know for the last 50 years, Reverend and Mrs. Clem Gaich have been ministering all over the world, my father-in-law followed him in one of the churches that he had served for 25 years as a pastor and even now, in his old age, still serves and loves the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, dear friend, that's what Paul is trying to tell us here in God's Word this morning. Paul is trying to tell us that no matter where we've been and no matter what we've done and no matter what condition we find ourselves, that because he is God and because of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can have peace and we can have joy and we can know the forgiveness of God. Some of you may say to me, but pastor, I have done this and I've done that, my marriage is broken up, I've been involved in that, all this comes out of my heart, I don't know how God could forgive me for anything, but the Bible says, my friends, there is not one sin that God will not forgive, accepting the sin of saying no to God.

That's what the Bible says. Look at this passage with me, he even talks about the condition of a person like Clem who has not accepted Christ. He talks about the Gentiles, why, because he was writing in the first century and the Gentiles were associated with paganism.

What is it? It's vanity and it's darkness and it's alienation and it's ignorance and it's the hopelessness and the purposelessness of the world in which we live and he uses three ways in order to describe this. He says, you know, these people like Clem and like all people who are lost because the interesting thing about God's Word is that the Bible says that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Isn't that incredible? Isn't it incredible to think that every single person has sinned and come short of the glory of God? That's why you're so welcome here this morning, my friend, because the only difference between the best of us in here and the worst of them out there is the grace of God. We are all sinners saved by God's grace. I do not deserve to stand in this pulpit this morning.

It is only by the grace of God. Listen to what Paul tells us here writing to the church at Ephesus. He uses three phrases to describe a person who's outside of Jesus Christ. Number one, the vanity of their minds.

That's right there in verse 17. That word vanity is the word futility. The futility of their minds, it was associated with the idol worship of the first century. It suggests emptiness and futility, that hole or that vacuum and that void and as a result of that, Paul says they are darkened in their understanding. Now friends, he wasn't talking about the conscience.

All of us have got a conscience here this morning. There's a difference between having a conscience and having spiritual discernment, darkened in understanding for those who haven't trusted Jesus Christ means that you are unable to distinguish between God's righteousness and man's demand for a lifestyle. That's what it means to be in spiritual darkness, to be alienated from God but he uses a second word. He says we are alienated from God in verse 18. He says that in our sin we are born and conceived. In sin we are separated from God and this has two consequences. It means that we have spiritual ignorance and it also means that we have blindness of heart if we understand verse 18.

Now the word blindness of heart was a medical term that was used by medical writers that wrote medical journals back there when Paul was around and when they wrote about the blindness of heart in Paul's time they were talking about a numbness, an insensibility, perhaps even the word is better used to describe a callousness. Have you ever worked so hard you get calluses? You can always tell what a man does by looking at his hands. People who work with their hands get calluses. Do you know what happens when you get calluses?

Your hands get so hard that you don't feel the pain associated with your work anymore. Well Paul says here that when we are alienated from the life of God we become callused or we become insensitive to the spiritual things of God's standards of righteousness. They are no longer and never have been significant to us whatsoever. And then the other thing he says, he says we are past feeling. In verse 19 he says that we are given over, we are lost to all sensitivity if we haven't trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. It means that we cease to feel pain. We cease to care. We have a moral insensibility. We have an abandonment to the reproaches of our spiritual conscience. It means that there is no spiritual lighthouse that governs our behaviour. That's what the Apostle Paul says. He was describing a person like Clem Gates. He was describing a person like you and me before we trust Jesus Christ. But friends you know it's so wonderful to know God's Word.

You know what I've discovered, this is the most incredible thing. I have discovered that what Jesus Christ has done for me, that He'll do exactly the same thing for you. Please forgive the interruption but we'll be back with the rest of today's message with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment but we want to remind you there are a number of resources. Right now many are asking about the 31 Days of Prayer for My Nation, a grand resource you can take a peek on our website.

Here's Liz with all the details about how you can get your copy. Our nation needs prayer more than ever. Our founding fathers understood that everything that we have and everything that we are is rooted in all that God is and without Him we're on our own. God has a very serious message for America. This month for your gift of any amount to the Encouraging Word Broadcast Ministry you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful message, free indeed. Along with the bonus book 31 Days of Prayer for My Nation.

This resource set will provide encouragement now and for the days ahead. You will have a renewed focus on the promise and power of prayer and for your freedom as an American. Call us at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673 to request free indeed and 31 Days of Prayer book. We thank you for supporting the Encouraging Word as we continue to proclaim the life changing gospel of Jesus Christ to a nation in desperate need of biblical truth.

Again I hope you'll get your copy of free indeed and that 31 Days of Prayer for Our Nation but know that that number 866-899-9673 is not just about ordering resources, it's also a prayer line 24 hours a day. Now let's get back to our teaching with Dr. Don Wilton on the Encouraging Word. Now I've discovered that the joy that Jesus Christ has given to me, He'll do that for everyone. He'll do it for all people.

Red and yellow and black and white people up this way and down that way, people from over there and over here, people who speak with a British accent or a southern drawl, He'll do it all. He loves us all the same. And know what He looks at us and He loves us so much God sent His Son Jesus to die upon the cross and here Paul is trying to say to us, listen friend, yes because of Adam, because Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and all over this congregation this morning, upstairs and downstairs, God loves you so much my friend.

He wants to come into your heart, that's what He wants to do. He wants to save you, listen to what He wants to do, He wants to forgive you for your sin. You say to me, wait a minute pastor, how can He forgive me for my sin? Because Jesus died on the cross. Listen to what the Bible says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not die but should have eternal life. He's not talking about Baptists there, He's not talking about Methodists there, no sir. He's not talking about Africans there, He's not talking about Americans there, He's not talking about Chinese there, He's talking about all people of every walk of life and of every persuasion God so loves the world and He gave Jesus Christ to be our Saviour. You know what we need to do?

We need to trust Him. They that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. The Bible says in Acts chapter 3 and verse 19, repent and be converted in order that your sins may be blotted out.

Watch what happens, this is the most incredible thing that I want to tell you this morning. When you give your life to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ literally, not symbolically, He literally because He died on the cross, He takes your sin and He takes my sin and here's what the Bible says, He casts our sin as far as the east is from the west and He remembers it no more. You say to me today, Pastor do you mean that God could forgive me completely?

Yes sir, watch me, watch me, absolutely. That's the authority of God's Word, yes sir, yes ma'am, He'll forgive you, He'll heal your broken heart, He will make you brand new again, He will write a new song upon your heart. I tell you what friend, Jesus Christ will do for you, what no man can do for you, not a wife, not a husband, not a family, not a position, not a bank balance. I tell you what, it doesn't matter where you are and what you are and where you've been and what you've done, Jesus Christ is the saviour of the world. Paul put it like this, he said listen, Jesus is so wonderful that I save to know nothing among you excepting Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so here in verse 20 through 24, Paul talks about what happens and he uses, I know there's some English teachers here, it doesn't matter but if you're interested he uses three infinitive constructions to describe what happens. Number one, he says in verse 22, you've got to put off the old man. Teenagers watch me, I've got bad news for you, not talking about your daddy here, you've got to put off the old man.

You know what that is? Paul talks about it in Romans 6, 6 he says, our old man is crucified with Christ. In Colossians 3, 9, you have put off the old man with his doings. He says to us, in other words, we need to put to death in Christ our old Adamic nature, what we have inherited because of the sin of Adam. What must be done about it? We must renounce him and we must replace him. The Bible says we must become new creatures.

Well how do we do that? Do I do something? No, Jesus Christ does something in me.

I cannot do it, but Jesus Christ can do it in me. He says, put off the old man. Number two, he says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. I love that word renew because it talks about renovation. That's what the word renewed means. It means to be renovated.

I like that, don't you? When you take a room at your home and you renovate it, you make it brand new. You put in some new stuff, you add things, you renovate things, but then he says, you mustn't only put off and renew your mind, but you must put on the new man. Now look what he says in verse 23 and 24. He says, when you put on the new man in Christ, three things happen. The likeness of God, which means your immortality, you're going to live with him forever. Number two, the righteousness of God, which means your inward behavior is going to begin to parallel the standards of God and number three, holiness.

Holiness points to your conduct and your devotion and your consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how about that this morning? What a powerful message and though it may not be morning where you're listening to this right now, perhaps it is time for a new beginning, a fresh new day of approaching Jesus Christ, knowing that he's using this broadcast to let you know he loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. You've heard Dr. Don as he's been preaching and now as he steps into the studio, would you open your heart to what he wants to share next? Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now?

Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. Welcome to the family of God. I'm convinced that some of you got serious with God. As Dr. Don was praying, you and your heart were praying along with him and it's time for you to make a new choice, a rededication to your faith, a rededication to Jesus Christ and for some of you, perhaps today's the day you gave your life to Jesus Christ for the very first time. Either way, Dr. Don has wonderful resources. You want to put in your hands absolutely free if you'll call us at 866-899-WORD. Jot the number down. It's available not just during the broadcast but anytime, day or night, 866-899-9673. We'll always connect you with one of us, happy to talk or listen or pray or connect you with wonderful resources that will help you grow in your faith. That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org.